overreport

An overreport is an instance in which the reported value, frequency, occurrence, or severity of an event or measurement exceeds its true value. The term is commonly used in statistics, research methodology, public health, crime and incident reporting, and finance to describe systematic or incidental upward bias in recorded data. Overreporting is the counterpart to underreporting and can be intentional or unintentional.

Causes of overreporting include measurement error, ambiguous definitions, recall bias, social desirability or demand characteristics in surveys, duplicate counting, incentives that reward higher figures, and deliberate falsification. In administrative systems, weak deduplication or poor data integration can produce apparent overreports even when no individual has misled authorities.

Consequences range from misallocation of resources and ineffective policy decisions to loss of credibility for institutions and researchers. In public health, overreporting disease incidence can divert limited resources; in finance, inflated figures may lead to regulatory action and legal penalties; in research, biased results can mislead subsequent work and interventions.

Detection and mitigation strategies include record linkage and deduplication, independent audits, triangulation with multiple data sources, validation studies, anonymous reporting mechanisms, clearer definitions and training, and statistical adjustments such as sensitivity analyses or capture–recapture methods. When intentional, overreporting may have ethical and legal implications, including charges of fraud.